... In one of the threads, someone mentioned a man named James Kowalski who lived near the Lyon family in Kensington at the time of the girls' disappearance. I believe he was in a punk band with his teenage son. Many years later, this man was connected to the disappearance of Junior Burdinski and child *advertiser censored*. Do you know if he was ever investigated as a suspect?
Thanks Richard.
I actually found a very interesting article about Kowalski online at http://asfm.blogspot.com/2008/05/white-boy-sagitarius-bumpersticker.html (copy and paste this link into your browser)....
If Kowalski did live in the neighborhood at the time, perhaps he or one of his associates may have been able to lure the girls into his house...
.... Another possible suspect that has been discussed on this forum is Milewski (sp?).
.... Do we know if there were any child trafficking/*advertiser censored* rings operating in the area at that time?
.....I wonder why this case has not been profiled on Dateline, AMW, or another such program? Someone must know something about this disappearance and maybe some new leads could be generated.
Ray Mileski lived on Suitland Road in Prince Georges County and had a home based business making and installing kitchen cabinets. He shot and killed his own son and wife and wounded another son in November of 1977. He turned himself in the same day and was subsequently tried and convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 1982, he became a person of interest in the case when some fellow inmates reported that he had stated that he was involved with the Lyon sisters disappearance. His former back yard was searched for a few hours by Montgomery County Police. Nothing was found. Again in the mid 1990's a tipster suggested that Mileski and some of his associates might have been involved with the Lyon Case. Mileski confirmed this in a letter from prison, hinting that he might be able to help police in return for a prison transfer. He was transferred but it is not known if this was because of any cooperation on his part. He has since died in prison.
Regarding possible child trafficking or poronography - that is certainly a possibility as we have seen regarding Kowalski and his activities, but there is no evidence that it was a factor in the girls disappearance.
Regarding why this case has not been featured on some of the national programs such as AMW, I guess you would have to ask the various TV networks and such programs. Each show or network has their criteria for selecting cases. Some feature only cases that have been solved. Others only feature cases with an identified suspect who is at large. Yet others choose for other reasons. Many would require cooperation and consent of the victim's family so that may be an issue or not. I just do not know.
I heard that his daughter told someone they were buried in pit some distance from his house. This was in the 90s when this came out. The pit is now an elementary school.
Richard,
I found this excerpt in one of your posts from several years ago....I am wondering if the employee mentioned was ever publicly identified and what sort a of criminal record he had?....and allegedly employed another person who had a long police record and who lived in several places near those two shopping centers.
Raymond Rudolph MILESKI, Sr.
Raymond Rudolph Mileski Sr. is a convicted murderer serving a life sentence in the Maryland Prison system. He is linked to the Lyon Sisters, because of claims that he has made on several occasions. Those stories have some varience to them, but basically Ray states that he knows who the abductor/murderer of the girls is.
A story about Montgomery County Police digging in the backyard of the Mileski home at 5816 Suitland Road was in the Washington Post in April 1982, but only briefly. It was only one of many momentary mentions of the Lyon Sisters in news stories over the years. At the time, nothing much came of it. The story told of police digging test holes for about three hours in response to tips from convicts, and that nothing was found. That story makes specific reference to the address and to it being in response to a tip from Maryland Prison Inmates, but it does not mention Mileski's name.
On 19 November 1977, following an ongoing family argument, Raymond Mileski Sr. shot his oldest son with a high power rifle in the basement of their home. When his wife, Dolores, ran down the stairs into the basement room, he shot her too. The bullet passed through her, through a wall and into the mouth of their 7 year old son, Peter, who was running down the stairs behind his mother. Mileski left his wife and older son for dead and transported Peter to Andrews Air Force Base for emergency treatment. Leaving him there, Mileski, drove to the home of a neighbor where his middle son Karl was visiting. He told Karl to stay where he was and then turned himself in to police.
Mileski, while in prison, had evidently told a story to other convicts that he knew who had abducted and killed the Lyon Sisters, these cons repeated the story to MCP investigators. Montgomery County Police dug test holes in the Mileski backyard for three hours and found nothing. End of story? Not quite.
In 2001, an anonymous tip to police named Mileski as having told others prior to his 1978 murder conviction, that he was in some way involved in the Lyon Sisters disappearance. Many elements of this tipster's story were checked out and found to be accurate.
Mileski, contacted in Prison in 2001, admitted in two letters that he did in fact know who the abductor of the Lyon Sisters was. He did not name anyone, but gave a general description of the area in which the girls were buried. Mileski made general statements, but clearly wanted to negotiate for a prison transfer before he would speak with investigators.
Mileski, in his second letter, referred to the girls' abductor as "C.D." and claimed to have met this individual "in the pen". The letter was a long and rambling one and it contained a demand that he be moved from his Baltimore area prison to the Western Correctional Facility in Cumberland, MD. These letters were forwarded to MCP detectives.
The most intriguing thing about a possible PG county connection is that the sketch of "Tape Recorder Man" was recognized by 15 mothers of young girls who had been approached by a man at Iverson Mall and at Marlow Heights Shopping Center on 22 March 1975, three days before the Lyon Sisters disappeared. The Washington Post reported that from one to three PG men were questioned, but that they were not considered suspects at the time. Those sightings place the primary suspect (Tape Recorder Man) right in the close proximity of Mileski, his home, and his alleged associates.
Police most likely spoke with Mileski. He was transferred to Cumberland after 2001, and he died there in December 2004.
It is hard to determine if Mileski actually knew anything about the Lyon case, or if he is just making it all up for his own advantage.
It is my opinion that Mileski was the likely source of the previous tip from other convicts, and that it may have been stories that he told prior to 1977 which surfaced in the 2001 website tip. He certainly claimed knowledge of it in his letters. But whether he actually had any first hand knowledge, or involvement in the girls' disappearance remains part of the mystery.
Michael Edward PEARCH
Michael Edward Pearch, born 20 April 1945 was shot dead by Montgomery County Police in the streets of Wheaton, Maryland on 13 April 1975. His death ended a shooting spree which he began at Wheaton Plaza Shopping Center during which he murdered two people and wounded five others. Could he have been involved in the abduction of the Lyon sisters from that same mall 19 days earlier?
Case Summary
At approximately 7:30 PM on Sunday, 13 April 1975, Michael Edward Pearch, age 29, left the home of his mother at 2506 Dennis Ave in the same neighborhood where the Lyon family lived, and drove a mile to the Wheaton Plaza Shopping Center where he parked his green 1965 Volkswagon. He was wearing his Army field jacket and carried a hunting knife taped under his armpit. He carried a Model 1911 .45 Colt Automatic Pistol and a knapsack containing loaded magazines and loose extra rounds.
Pearch shot three people in the Wheaton Plaza parking lot, and walked east into the downtown area of Wheaton - the "triangle area" bounded by University Ave, Georgia Ave, and Viers Mill Road where he shot four more people. He seemed to be targeting black people, as he bypassed potential white victims and shot only at blacks.
Police responded to calls for assistance and he was stopped only when a police officer shot him four times with a 12 Gauge shotgun, killing him in the middle of Viers Mill Road. He carried no identification. A later autopsy found a tumor on his pituitary gland, although it was not concluded that the tumor caused his homicidal behavior.
Pearch was very intelligent. A 1963 graduate of High Point High School, he had attended two and a half years at the University of Maryland (1963-1965) before entering the Army, where he served for three years as a counter intelligence agent in West Germany. He was reported to have used a false passport and operated undercover in that assignment.
Pearch loved history and was a Revolutionaly War re-enactor, a hobby in which he dressed in authentic historical costumes and participated in "living history" presentations. He was an avid reader of books, especially books on military history.
Pearch spoke fluent German. He returned to Germany for a year (1971-1972) to study art. His German girl friend, Cornelia Rathje, was supposedly killed in an auto accident and he became depressed over it.
Following the shootings and the death of Pearch, friends and family told police and news reporters that he had been behaving in an increasingly strange manner over the previous year. He had paranoid tendencies, carried a weapon at all times, slept with a loaded shotgun, and was at times withdrawn and depressed. Since February 1974, he had been living alone and rent free at a 400 acre farm, owned by Mr. Robert Combs Sr. The farm was located about three miles from Friendsville in Garrett County, Maryland - not far from the West Virginia state line. He lived off the land, gardening and hunting.
Between January and April 1975, Pearch made numerous trips between the farm and his mother's house at 2506 Dennis Ave. He was known to frequent a gun store near Wheaton Plaza and was reported to have amassed a large collection of weapons.
Pearch's father had visited him at the Garrett County farm in early April 1975 and was impressed at what he called "an arsenal" of guns, ammunition, and knives. In contrast to this, Montgomery County Police visited the farm on Tuesday, 15 April 1975, and stated that they had found "few personal effects" and that "There was nothing in the cabin to indicate any militant, radical, or racial views."
Pearch's body was cremated and his ashes spread on the farm in Garrett County. His victims were buried and the case was considered closed. There are, however, a number of coincidences and connections between Pearch and the Lyon sisters.
Comparisons and Coincidences
Pearch was a very disturbed individual who lived in the same neighborhood as the Lyon girls. His mother's house was only eight tenths of a mile from the Lyon house and only three blocks from Oakland Terrace Middle School where Katherine Lyon and her younger brother attended. It is possible, in fact likely, that Pearch had seen the girls on previous occasions. Pearch was unemployed. He came and went as he pleased, commuting between the Garrett County farm and his mother's house in Kensington.
The last credible sighting of the Lyon sisters on 25 March 1975 was between 2:30 and 3:30 PM on Drumm Avenue, a back road leading toward their house. This residential area adjacent to Wheaton Plaza is a maze of dead end roads and narrow streets that loop around closely spaced houses.
An abductor would need to be familiar with those streets, and Pearch had traveled them often. He was a loner, was always armed, had a vehicle, had plenty of free time, and had a remote location to take the girls.
Michael Pearch had told his mother and sister that he had been formally trained by the US Army in counter intelligence techniques, including kidnapping and the use of false identification.
Prior to his killing spree that Sunday evening, Pearch had no criminal record. He was not known to be connected with any criminal organizations and he was not known to have committed any offenses against children.
Although extremely intelligent, Pearch was obviously mentally disturbed. In the end, he proved to be a cold blooded killer with a personal death wish. Could the same mental problems which caused him to murder and wound seven strangers have caused him to abduct the Lyon sisters earlier? He certainly must have heard of their disappearance. Had knowledge of that event caused him to begin his shooting spree as a way of committing "suicide by police"?